There are some corner cases in the idea of shelf: If we can drag a folder to shelf as a tab item, then a tab in shelf is another presentation of folder of file manager:
1. If there is a sub-folder inside, is it display as a folder item on the tab ? Click on it will display sub-folder on screen ? 2. If that sub-folder is also a tab in shelf, when user click on it, should shelf switch to sub-folder tab or display sub-folder on screen ? 3. If there are too many elements on a tab, we need either a scroller or arrows on both sides to see all elements. Add/Remove elements: 1. When an element is drag into tab, does it automatically saved as a file ? How do we decide the file name ? 2. When you move an element between tab, does it actually move from folder to folder physically ? Pick is a visualization of clip board (pasteboard). It can be implemented separated from shelf. 1. If you open a document, then switch tabs, then minimize that document, should it minimized to current tab or its original tab ? If it minimizes to its original place, should shelf switch to that tab automatically ? 2. If we open a file from file manager and minimized it, which shelf should it goes ? If it minimized to current shelf, does it mean it is moved to that folder physically ? It is not clear that at the beginning of the text, a tab is map to a folder. Later on, users can also minimize a document into a tab. When that happens, does it means the minimized document is moved to that folder physically ? When a user drag that tab containing minimized document to the desktop, which elements will show up in the folder ? If we have another application switcher, things will be very complicated. For example, if we switch to an application, will all minimized document for that application in every tab show on desktop ? Yen-Ju On 3/29/07, Quentin Mathé <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi all, This is in part a reply to Yen-Ju's mail "Etoile Workspace UI"… :-) I have preferred to reply in a separate thread because I will put the focus on Shelf (and Dock) rather than Workspace related stuff. This proposal is inspired by previous tabbed shelf discussions and also Brian Muhumuza idea stack idea. You can read it here: <http:// live.gnome.org/BrianMuhumuza/ToPaZ/Shelf> More related Brian's ideas: <http://live.gnome.org/BrianMuhumuza/ToPaZ> I must say Michal Cap's 'Étoilé: Task Analysis' has been quite stimulating too :-) Here is a rough introduction to Shelf concept as it could be implemented for Étoilé… Reading may prove to be somewhat boring since mockups/screenshots miss ;-) The Shelf is made of several tabs. Each tab of the Shelf would act somewhat like a stack if we refer to Brian description. Take note I will use 'Pick and drop' expression as a replacement for both copy/paste and drag/drop --- How tabs are created, moved and removed? - You choose Document > New Folder and you drag elements into it. You select this folder named "Many things" or any other folders and you choose Document > Turn into Shelf. A new tab "Many things" appears at the right of the existing Shelf tabs. - You can move "Many things" tab at second tab position by clicking the tab item then dragging it towards the left. - You can remove "Many things" tab by clicking the tab item and dragging it somewhere over the desktop. During this drag operation, the tab is automatically morphed into its usual folder window form. --- How elements are added, moved and removed in tabs? This can be done in various ways, but here is the way commonly used for User objects. - You click a user object visible on screen (like text selection, folder item, document item, document window, application item… any components or UI object you can drag or pick)… then you drag it into one of the Shelf tabs. On mouse release, the element will have been moved in Shelf. - You click an item in a Shelf tab and you drag it around to move it, other items in the tab will dynamically move to let enough room for a drop. - You click an item in a Shelf tab and you drag it away on a drop target like a folder item, a document window, the trash… The drop target can be an element in the current Shelf tab like a folder item or a minimized window. The element is removed when the drag operation is started. However if you keep alt modifier pressed when you begin the drag operation, the element is kept in the Shelf tab and you just drag a copy of it. --- How Shelf integrates with pick and drop? First here is an excerpt of 'Content/Edit' menu: Undo Redo ----- Pick Copy (or Pick a copy) Paste Keep in Shelf <-- this menu entry is explained below ----- Select All … … In all these cases, I suppose the focus and the selection are outside of the Shelf. For example in a document window. - When you choose 'Pick' or 'Copy', the picked element immediately appears at the right of elements in current Shelf tab (with a clipping-like icon). If you pick it with a drag operation, nothing happens until you decide to drop it in the Shelf tab area. Note: If the focus was on Shelf and an item was selected in the current Shelf tab, choosing Pick or Copy in this case would have a similar effect… the Shelf selected item would become visible at the end of the item row with a clipping-shaped icon. For Copy, the initially selected item would remain in place (unlike for Pick). - When you choose 'Paste', the picked element disappears from the current Shelf tab and is pasted in the active area of the frontmost active window. You can also click and drag the element directly from the Shelf tab, it will also disappear in this case unless you keep alt modifier pressed when you begin the drag operation. - If you choose 'Keep in Shelf', the element loses its clipping- shaped icon in favor of what would be its default icon. Starting from now if you choose Paste, the element is pasted properly but remains in the Shelf tab. By the way if you choose Pick or Copy again, the newly picked element will appear on the right of the previous one we decided to keep in Shelf. --- How Shelf integrates with windows? A small dot on any icons visible in Shelf indicates these user objects are currently open (or active, though active doesn't mean visible on screen here). This is used for applications, documents, devices… - If you minimize a window, it appears in the current Shelf tab in a minimized form. You can also drag a window directly onto the Shelf to minimize it. Note: If the window is a document window and the associated document item is visible in current Shelf tab, then the window is minimized into the document item. This means the document item now appears with a window-shaped icon. Previously it was displayed as an open document in the Shelf. - If you click a minimized window or a document item with window- shaped icon, they instantly gets put back on screen at their original location. Note: An application like Calculator can have a window-shaped icon if it consists of a single window currently minimized. - If you double-click the desktop or choose 'Put Away in Shelf' in desktop contextual menu (or in Shelf contextual menu), every windows (every user objects displayed on screen) get minimized in current Shelf tab. These element are added at the end of the item row. Note: double-click on desktop is an interesting action that could be reserved for other interaction possibility. Note: When a User object has been minimized or placed at a precise location in current Shelf tab, on next minimization it should go back at the same place (well unless it's not possible for some reason). - If you double-click a tab item in Shelf, all the open elements of this tab are put back on screen (in other words they get unminimized). If the tab only consists of closed elements or is empty, nothing happens. Note: In the last case, when no minimized elements are present in the Shelf tabs, on double-click we could just minimize every elements visible on screen in this tab. - With Shelf contextual menu, you can choose to close all elements currently open in the current tab. You can also choose to do the reverse: open all elements in current tab. In this Shelf implementation, there are no special tab for running applications. I think it's probably better to allow some kind of standalone Dock like a simplified AZDock that would be reduced to an application switcher role (I mean you wouldn't have the possibility add or remove applications by drag/drop). We could show such Dock on the left or the right or even at the top below the menu bar. It might be hidden by default and only appears on ctrl+tab as it's commonly the case in other desktop environments. I would suggest the following features for such application switcher… If we make a double-click on an application icon, it brings the application to front with all related windows. Now if we make a single click an application icon, it darkens the screen and triggers an Expose-like arrangement for windows of this precise application. I think this corrects an important problem of Expose which lies in the fact you cannot quickly scan windows per application because you got to switch across applications first. Another nice addition could be to display Étoilé flower in this application switcher. A double-click on it would trigger Expose-like arrangement of all application windows. A single click would activate the file manager or shows the desktop. It could also be used as another possible replacement of Étoilé menu if we want to use vertical menu. That's it for today :-) Let me know what you think. Cheers, Quentin. _______________________________________________ Etoile-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/etoile-discuss
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